'There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things...'
Tell me, daughter of Jove, of his battles and his tragedies, of the strangers he encountered and the evil plots he foiled. Speak with laughter, with tears, through songs and visions of the Doctor, the hero and champion of this world and many more.Join the Doctor on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe, from an alien world tyrannised by a god-like machine, to the British retreat from Afghanistan in 1842. Discover the secrets of the TARDIS's original owner, and of three faceless creatures stranded in 21st century Hollywood.
And finally, if you can, face the terrors that lurk in your own heart, and in your dreams...
Fourteen brand new adventures for reading after dark!
This collection features fourteen exclusive short stories from veterans of the Doctor Who universe - including Marc Platt, Lance Parkin, Robert Shearman, Jonathan Morris and Trevor Baxendale - and from several authors new to it, including acclaimed fantasy novelist Juliet E McKenna.
A Universe of Terrors is compiled and edited by John Binns who in the early Nineties edited the regular Doctor Who fiction collection Silver Carrier, in which many of today's Doctor Who novelists and television script-writers sharpened their teeth.
'We all have a universe of our own terrors to face' Doctor Who: Ghost Light, by Marc Platt
For 40 years, the battered doors of a police telephone box have been our gateway to other times, and other worlds: worlds that have been at turns disturbing, frightening, horrific and surreal. Through several generations, a large part of the series' appeal has been its ability to shock and scare us, defying the best efforts of well-meaning parents and censors.
In contrast to its rivals in the genre, Doctor Who has portrayed a universe peopled not with human-like cultures working their way towards peace, but with unspeakable demons and monsters, killer robots, and creatures that lurk in the dark. Where more conventional sci-fi series have used other worlds to explore the science of space travel or the human condition, Doctor Who followed the tradition of the B-movies of the Fifties and of the Quatermass television serials, in which the existence of space/time travel and alien life was not an intellectual curiosity but an excuse to frighten children - and adults - out of their wits.
A Universe of Terrors brings Doctor Who fiction back to those roots, and explores the darkest corners of the Doctor's universe. It is a journey that takes in not just alien and physical terrors, but also those of our own world, and of our own personal nightmares. It also depicts a progression in the Doctor's own lives, from the moment he and his grand-daughter Susan first stepped aboard a stolen TARDIS, to an uncertain future in which the boundaries between good and evil become irrevocably blurred.